August 23rd, 2017

Sales and Marketing together are the two important engines that need to work jointly for your business to perform well. Hence, the sales and marketing leaders’ top priority is to understand the importance and power of each other’s existence in the organization. If there is no coexistence and alignment, no sharing of notes and insights between the two departments, then businesses might fall flat on their face.

If you want to align your sales and marketing departments in cost effective and time sensitive manner, just make sure that you watch out for the following mistakes:

Mistake# 1: Separate meetings

Sales and Marketing are often treated as two unconnected departments with two separate managers. Whereas it’s okay to have two managers (Sales Manager and Marketing Manager), what is not okay is when they don’t talk to each other or don’t conduct one meeting to share insights from both the sides.

Sales job starts where the marketing’s ends- gone are the days when corporate world thrived on this classic beleive. Now, marketing equals sales, sales equal marketing. We are sure that good managers at both the ends, sales and marketing, try to bridge the gap between two departments by conducting one meeting where sales reps talk to marketing honchos and vice versa. Without each other’s input neither can perform. So, bring them under one meeting room and even make them sit in cubicles next to each other.

Mistake# 2: Not involving sales in content creation

Who knows the pulse of your target audience? Who talks to them on a regular basis? Who are at the field getting insights from every direction, even from your competitors’ reps? Sales executives do all that hard and grunt work of talking, nurturing relationship, regardless of the product or service category. They know what customers need and what kind of messaging plus product features might attract them. So, not taking your sales execs feedback in the process of content creation, messaging and other marketing collaterals, is the numero uno mistake that needs to be addressed before everything goes haywire.

Sales’ job is to narrate the story written by Marketing peeps at every stage in the sales funnel. Steve Jobs is still considered the best salesman of this era because he as a CEO of his company was passionately involved in every aspect of product development, marketing and selling too.

Mistake #3: Releasing campaign without sales’ knowledge

Often times marketing releases ad campaigns on various media without giving any inkling to the sales execs about the messaging of campaign. When calls start pouring in, sales execs act all confused if asked about offer etc. as advertised on so and so media. Hence, even the smallest of campaign or microscopic change in messaging need to be communicated to sales team.

Mistake #4: Unaligned goals

In separate meetings, ask both your sales and marketing managers what their goals are. If they don’t say “to bring more business”, then it’s time for you to educate both of them. Sales managers might think that their work is to convert. Marketing managers live with the notion that they need to run campaigns to bring and push leads into the funnel for sales to perform.

In reality, this is a faux pas where goals are not aligned.

The perspective needs to be changed with great deal of focus on customer journey. This can successfully lead to sales and marketing working in tandem with each other.

Mistake #5: Not giving feedback to the Marketing

This mistake arises if the previous one of ‘unaligned goals’ is not dealt with. Sales, across industries, need to constantly update the marketers on which channels give maximum number of quality leads. How will marketers know about it unless communicated? Hence, at every stage it is pertinent that the two parties sit together and share notes so that marketers don’t keep campaigning on wrong channels.

Mistake #6: Technology not being at the epicenter

Sales can end up using different tools to keep track of their leads, without giving adequate access to the Marketing and vice versa. Both the sides need to see data from each department and for this to happen they are required to use the same tool or atleast give full access to each other.

For example, in case of Digital Media, a marketer too would be interested to know which pages on the website are giving maximum leads and conversion.

Crux of the matter: Marketing needs to be involved throughout the sales funnel and sales need to give constant input on customer journey to marketing. Ideally, they need to exist and work in unison.